Materials which can provide amber, woody, camphoraceous, floral, orris-like and fruity aroma profiles with patchouli-like topnotes particularly those materials which are relatively inexpensive are highly sought after in the art of perfumery. Many of the natural materials which provide such fragrance profiles and contribute desired nuances to perfumery compositions and perfumed article substances are high in cost, vary in quality from one batch to another and/or are generally subject to the usual variations of natural products.
There is, accordingly, a continuing effort to find synthetic materials which will replace the essential fragrance notes provided by natural essential oils or compositions thereof. Unfortunately, many of these synthetic materials either have the desired nuances only to a relatively small degree or else contribute undesirable or unwanted odor to the composition. The search for materials which can provide a more refined amber, woody, camphoraceous, orris-like, fruity and patchouli-like aroma have been difficult and relatively costly in the areas of both natural products and synthetic products.
In addition, artificial flavoring agents for foodstuffs have received increasing attention in recent years. In many years, such food flavoring agents have been preferred over natural flavoring agents at least in part due to their diminished cost and their reproducible flavor qualities. For example, natural food flavoring agents such as extracts, concentrates and the like are often subject to wide variations due to changes in the quality, type and treatment of the raw materials. Such variations can be reflected in the end product and result in unfavorable flavor characteristics in said end product. Additionally, the presence of the natural product in the ultimate food may be undesirable because of increased tendency to spoil. This is particularly troublesome in food and food uses where such products as dips, soups, chips, sausages, gravies and the like are apt to be stored prior to use.
The fundamental problem in creating artificial flavor agents is that the artificial flavor to be achieved be as natural as possible. This generally proves to be a difficult task since the mechanism for flavor development in many foods is not completely known. This is noticeable in products having nutty, earthy, woody-balsamic, fresh walnut kernel and walnut skin flavor characteristics.
Reproduction of nutty, earthy, woody-balsamic, fresh walnut kernel and walnut skin flavor and aroma has been the subject of long and continuing searches by those engaged in production of foodstuffs and beverages. The severe shortage of food in many parts of the world has given rise to the development of previously unused sources of protein which are unpalatable. Accordingly, the need has arisen for the use of flavoring materials which will make such sources of protein palatable to human sensory organs.
Even more desirable is a product that can serve to substitute for difficult-to-obtain natural perfumery oils and at the same time substitute for natural flavoring ingredients in both foodstuffs as well as in tobacco.
Perfumery materials which are inexpensive such as dihydro linalool (3,7-Dimethyl-6-octen-3-ol), and dihydro myrcenol (3-Methylene-7-methyloctanol-7) do not provide the patchouli-like orris-like fragrance profiles that are provided by the more expensive, more complex molecules such as patchouli alcohol having the structure: ##STR2## Dihydro linalool according to "Perfume and Flavor Chemicals (Aroma Chemicals)" by Steffen Arctander (1969) having the structure: ##STR3## at Monograph 960 is indicated to have a fresh, floral, citrusy aroma which is less woody than linalool and more powerful and more lime-like than tetrahydro linalool. On the other hand, dihydro myrcenol having the structure: ##STR4## (at number 964 of Arctander) is described as being powerful, fresh lime-like overall citrusy, floral and sweet with little or no terpenic undertones. Dihydro myrcenyl acetate described at Monograph 965 of Arctander having the structure: ##STR5## is described as sweet, spicy, herbaceous, fresh and somewhat fruity with a bergamot-lime character but poor tenacity.
No chemicals described in a prior art such as dihydro myrcenyl acetate, dihydro myrcenol or dihydro linalool have aroma profiles or chemical structures even remotely similar to the compounds of our invention.